The fucose-containing sulfated polysaccharides (SP) from brown algae exhibit a wide range of bioactivities and are, therefore, considered promising candidates for health-supporting and medicinal applications. A critical issue is their availability in high, reproducible quality. The aim of the present study was to fractionate and characterize the SP extracted from Saccharina latissima (S.l.-SP) harvested from two marine habitats, the Baltic Sea and North Atlantic Ocean, in May, June and September. The fractionation of crude S.l.-SP by anion exchange chromatography including analytical investigations revealed that S.l.-SP is composed of a homogeneous fraction of sulfated galactofucan (SGF) and a mixture of low-sulfated, uronic acid and protein containing heteropolysaccharides. Furthermore, the results indicated that S.l. growing at an intertidal zone with high salinity harvested at the end of the growing period delivered the highest yield of S.l.-SP with SGF as the main fraction (67%). Its SGF had the highest degree of sulfation (0.81), fucose content (86.1%) and fucose/galactose ratio (7.8) and was most active (e.g., elastase inhibition: IC50 0.21 μg/mL). Thus, S.l. from the North Atlantic harvested in autumn proved to be more appropriate for the isolation of S.l.-SP than S.l. from the Baltic Sea and S.l. harvested in spring, respectively. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that habitat and harvest time of brown algae should be considered as factors influencing the yield as well as the composition and thus also the bioactivity of their SP.

The present study demonstrates that fucose-containing sulfated polysaccharides (FCSP) from brown algae interfere with the CXCL12/CXCR4 axis in human Burkitt's lymphoma cells by binding CXCL12 and thereby blocking both CXCL12-induced CXCR4 receptor activation and downstream effects like migration and secretion of matrix metalloproteinase-9. This mode of action is currently considered as promising strategy for tumor therapy and may contribute to the known in vivo antitumor, antimetastatic and antiangiogenic activity of FCSP. In terms of the inhibition of the CXCR4 activation, FCSP from Saccharina latissima (S.l.-FCSP) proved to be more active than a commercial "Fucoidan" from Fucus vesiculosus, and both FCSP were superior to heparins by more than one order of magnitude. Fractionation of S.l.-FCSP revealed that its main fraction is composed of a homogeneous, higher sulfated galactofucan (S.l.-SGF) which consistently exhibited stronger activities and can therefore be considered as the active ingredient of S.l.-FCSP. By subjecting Fucoidan to the same fractionation procedure, the inhibitory activity of the obtained purified Fucoidan on the CXCL12/CXCR4 axis tended to be weaker and its antioxidant and antiproliferative effects were lost. This was probably due to the separation of contaminants including phenolic compounds, whose content additionally showed marked batch-to-batch variability. Regarding the need of standardized, well-characterized FCSP preparations for any potential medical application, our results indicate that S.l.-SGF is a promising candidate for further investigations and that S. latissima may be a more appropriate source of FCSP than F. vesiculosus or other algae species with high contents of co-extractable compounds.

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